Healer's Touch (11 page)

“He's friends with Viera. She's the reason he's giving me this chance. I would think you'd be grateful for all she and Aru have done for us.”

“It isn't that I'm not grateful. I'm just not used to people helping us without wanting something in return. What do you really know about this Karal? What if he's some kind of…of predator?”

“Is this because he's Kurgan? Is that what this is about?”

Mai threw up her hands. “Honestly, Inella! What kind of man pays a woman twelve falcons a month to take inventory?”

The accusation hung in the air between them and Inella felt herself bristle.
She thinks I'm fucking him.
On the heels of that thought came another.

So what?

Even if Inella had to earn those twelve falcons on her back, it was no worse than she had done in the past. The only difference was that now she would be paid enough to actually support her family.

And that I might find some pleasure in the task.

Inella glanced at her children to find them staring morosely into their bowls. “This isn't the time to discuss this.”

Mai let out a long sigh. “You're right, my dear. I'm just…worried. We've had so much good fortune the last few days. It just makes me afraid because I don't see how it can last.”

Inella smiled and shook her head. “I almost died the other day, mother. Every moment from that point on is like a gift. What kind of person would I be if I survived the accident and just went back to being hopeless and miserable, to scratching out a bare living without ever trying to find something better for us? I'm not going to live my life as if I don't deserve it. I'm going to hope. I'm going to expect good things. I'm going to accept the kindnesses of others for what they are. If that means I'll end up hurt or disappointed someday, I'll find a way to live with that too.”

Mai smiled back, swiping at her eyes. “You deserve every good thing, my dear. I only wish I could have given you more.”

“Don't be silly, mum,” Inella chided. “We couldn't have survived losing Ned if we didn't have you.” She smiled at her children, who had perked up now that the difficulty was past. “And we still need you, all of us. Tonight, too, actually. The little ones will have to do without me for one more night.”

Mai's brows lifted.

“Aru wants me to stay in the infirmary again tonight, just in case.” She was amazed how easily the lie came.

“Just in case what?”

Inella cursed her fair coloring—the smallest discomfiture was always immediately visible on her cheeks. “He says that complications can sometimes arise in the first few days, especially at night when the body is at its weakest.”

Her mother's gaze narrowed. “Huh.”

“It should only be for one more night.”

Mai frowned at her, her eyes too sharp. “They told me that Master Aru demands no money for his services. Now I have to wonder if he doesn't take payment in other ways.”

Inella flicked a glance toward her children, who had stopped eating once more to watch the interplay between their mother and grandmother. She felt her mouth tighten. It was unfair of her mother to bring this up in front of Vin and Krista, when Inella could not properly defend herself. And it galled that Mai seemed so disapproving now, considering how Inella had been forced to earn her money in the past. She'd spread her legs more than once for a sparse handful of coppers so that her mother and children could eat. Even if Aru would have her do the same, he'd saved her life. Without him, her children would have lost their mother as well as their home. Was that not worth more than a few pennies?

“Aru has not asked anything of me,” she told her mother very firmly. It wasn't even a lie. She glanced at the window, where the light was turning deep amber with the approach of twilight. “I should go, if I don't want to get caught in the dark.”

She rose and took her cloak down from the hook by the door, then bent and kissed Vin and Krista. She hugged her mother and forced a smile. “Don't worry, mum. It will all be fine, you'll see. I'll stop by on my way to work tomorrow morning.”

“All right.”

 

The house was silent when Aru returned. He couldn't remember the last time he was this unsteady—far from drunk but not exactly sober, either. After wandering half the day, he'd finally gone to the Whore's Crown, one of only a few places, even in the wharf district, where his presence was tolerated. There he'd found Rat drinking cheap brandy and looking forlorn. The thief was still unaccustomed to Gil's absence—the two had been fast friends until Gil abandoned Belthalas three months ago for the life of a married country gentleman.

Rat had been more than happy to kill an interminable evening playing drak with Aru. Together, they'd put away the better part of a cask of brandy, forgoing the dubious offerings of Aliannet's cook-pot in favor of liquid sustenance.

He'd left Rat snoring in Gil's old apartment, then walked the few blocks home in the cool spring air. The moon was high—it had just gone middle night. Viera had to be safely abed by now, surely. Cursing the twinge he felt in his nethers at even the smallest thought of her, Aru inserted the key in the lock and opened the door.

Candlelight greeted him and for a moment he could only gape. On every second stair leading to the upper floor, flickering in the sudden draft from the open door, a candle burned. He blinked, suddenly assailed by the scent of the rose petals strewn across the foyer and lower steps.

He closed his eyes. Prayed to a god who had long deserted him for strength he knew he didn't have. Against the black backdrop of the half-world, he could see the two of them upstairs in his bedroom, their auras drawn in strands of colored light. Inella reclined in his armchair with her legs curled under her. Viera lounged on the floor at her feet, head resting on the other woman's knees, one hand stroking absently along Inella's calf.

At the sight of the caress his cock stiffened, filling with blood. He would not go to her. He would not.

With a start, he realized he was already halfway up the stairs. His eyes stung with tears of frustration and futility. Where was his will? Only a moment ago he had been set in his mind, immovable, and now? With a few rose petals and the promise of her beautiful body, she had ground his backbone into meal.

His feet chose their path, up the stairs and toward his bedroom doorway. Across the threshold spilled the light of scores of candles, a brilliant, golden glow. He looked inside. He was helpless not to. Seeing him, Viera rose with the lithe grace of a serpent, her red-painted lips parted in an inviting smile. Behind her, Inella stood, her expression eager and shy at the same time. Both women were nude.

Aru stared, his mouth a desert. His cock had become an instrument of brutal self-torture, twitching greedily, lusting for what it could not have. He wouldn't go in. He would not. He shook his head, a mute, desperate negation, even knowing how pointless a gesture it was. Viera was not to be denied. Merciless as a goddess, she demanded her due and would brook no refusal.

She extended one pale, sinuous arm, crooked her finger. “Come in, Aru,” she said in a voice like melted butter.

Intention and action seemed to have become two entirely unrelated concepts. His mind said no. His feet were already carrying him through the door.

Viera laughed, low and sultry. She turned to face Inella, took both of the other woman's hands and drew her toward the bed. Inella followed, docile as a lamb.

Beside the bed, the two women embraced, their lips meeting in a slow, sensuous dance. Aru watched as their tongues coiled and played, as their hands roamed across each other's bodies. For a moment, he let his eyes drift closed, let himself see them as they truly were—two ethereal beings wrought of light and color. In her arousal, the brilliance of Viera's aura was focused at the juncture of her thighs, on that place where her Power lived, the place he wanted to be. The sight of it dazzled him as if she burned from within, her clitoris like a glittering star, her womb white-hot as a sun. He could imagine falling into that brightness, being consumed by it until he was nothing but ash.

Against the muted glimmer of the candles in the empty blackness of the half-world, he saw Viera place her hands on Inella's shoulders and push her gently down to her knees. He saw Viera place her feet further apart.

Saw Inella's mouth alight upon the flesh of Viera's sex like a butterfly upon the petals of a flower.

His eyes flew open. He realized his hand was pressed to his cock through the wool of his trousers, but he had no will to make himself stop. How could he, when they were doing what they were doing?

Inella's hands slid up the backs of Viera's thighs, her tongue probing between the lips of Viera's sex, seeking the hill of her clit. One hand gripping the bedpost, Viera let out a long, slow breath, her eyes fastened on Inella's. She smoothed her free hand down her own torso, pausing briefly to toy with the pointed tips of her breasts, then pushed her fingers into Inella's mane of blonde hair. “That's it, my dear,” she whispered, pulling Inella's mouth harder and closer upon her, thrusting up and forward with her hips to give the woman better access to her female flesh. Her gaze met Aru's, for an instant only, but there was a wealth of invitation and insinuation in that glance.

See what she does to me, Aru,
her eyes seemed to say.
Don't you wish it was you on your knees for my pleasure? Don't you wish it was your mouth devouring me?

And god help him, he did wish it. He stepped closer, his eyes traveling Viera's length from the delicate arch of her neck, to her hair spilling like a dark river down her back, to her breasts with their nipples gone hard like stones. Down to the apex of her thighs where Inella's mouth worshiped her. Inella's thumbs parted the swollen pink labia while her tongue lashed over and over at the rigid nub of Viera's clit. With a hiss of indrawn breath, Viera lifted one bare foot and set it on the mattress so her legs were spread wide. Her pussy lay open to his gaze for but a moment before Inella redoubled her efforts, dragging her tongue up Viera's furrow from her opening to her clit and back down again.

“Put your tongue inside me, Inella,” Viera moaned, her fingers leaving Inella's hair to toy with her own clit. Aru held his breath as Inella dipped her head lower and plunged her tongue deep into Viera's cunt.

Aru's cock was so hard he thought it might explode. In despair, he released the buttons of his trousers and encircled his aching shaft with a trembling hand. “Please,” he croaked.
“Please.”

Viera's gaze sliced into him, hard and bright in her flushed face. Her hand fisted in Inella's hair, pulling her mouth away. Breathless, the blonde stared up at Viera, her lips shiny with cream.

“
Please?
But she does please me, Aru,” Viera said. “She pleases me very much.” Her eyes dropped to his cock, her gaze like a physical touch. His organ twitched and seeped in response. “I can see she pleases you, as well.”

He shook his head, swallowing hard past the dryness in his mouth. “No…please, do not…”

“Please don't what?” Viera demanded, her voice like a whip. With her fisted hand in Inella's hair she drew the other woman to her feet, her other hand grabbing Inella's breast, tugging almost harshly at the nipple, evoking a sharp cry of pleasure-pain. “Don't touch her?” Her hand slid lower, slipped between Inella's legs, stabbed up into her cunt. “Don't use her for my pleasure?” With a wicked laugh, she shoved Inella backward onto the bed. The blonde sprawled there on her back, one arm flung over her head, her legs splayed, gazing up at Viera in open anticipation. Aru could see how wet she was between her thighs, how excited.

“Shall I take her, Aru?” Viera asked breezily, crawling up onto the bed and reaching beneath the pillows. When her hand emerged it held the ivory member she had used on herself two nights before. Looking slyly up at Aru through her lashes, she rubbed the tip of the member on Inella's breasts, teasing the nipples into tighter peaks, then drew it slowly down the softness of her abdomen.

“Shall I, Aru?” she pressed, sliding the cock up and down Inella's wet valley, coating it in slickness. Inella writhed and spread her legs wider, pushing her bottom downward to increase the pressure of the smooth ivory on her clit. “Shall I?”

Paldir help me, no.
“Yes.”

Rewarding him with a warm smile, Viera lowered her head and dragged her tongue from Inella's anus to her clit, then suckled the bud gently. Inella responded with a delightful wriggle, mewling like a hungry kitten. Aru's cock released a surge of fluid. It trickled across his pumping fist and coated his shaft with slickness.

With one last lick for the other woman's tortured clit, Viera held up the member. “Where shall I put this, Aru?”

God help me, please, just put it away, put it away. Put it away and leave me in peace and torment me no more.

“In her cunt,” was what his mouth said.

Her grin widening, Viera pressed the tip of the cock against Inella's opening, stretching the inner labia. With the thumb of her other hand, she rubbed the woman's clit until Inella's breath rushed in and out of her parted lips and her hips began to grind down onto the mattress. The cock slipped in halfway and Inella drew in a long, hissing breath. Viera pulled it slowly back out, then plunged it in to the hilt.

“Ahhhh!” Inella cried, her back arching off the bed, her hands fisted in the sheets.

Aru's hand was now sliding up and down his shaft in rhythm with the thrusting of that ivory cock. As he watched, Viera stretched out along Inella's length, took the tip of one soft breast in her mouth and suckled, her hand shoving the fake member over and over into Inella's wet sex.

“God, oh god, oh god,” the blonde murmured, her own fingers sliding down across her belly to find her clit. She drew tiny circles around the small, fleshy hill, her hips pushing upward rhythmically to meet Viera's thrusts. “Ah, ah, ah…yes, like that, oh god help me…”